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Program Number: F-53 Program Name: A Cluster of Stars, 1984 (Narrative) A CLUSTER OF STARS A Program for Founders’ Day By Pamela K. Prater, GW Nebraska PROGRAM NOTES: The Program, “A Cluster of Stars,” originally was given for the 1983 Lincoln, Nebraska, Round Table Founders' Day celebration. It could, however, be adapted for use at a chapter meeting. The following explanation pertaining to the presentation of “A Cluster of Stars” may be helpful. 1) At the luncheon tables, each place setting had a candle, with a drip guard, and the words to the song, “One Little Candle.” (NOTE: The candles were obtained from a church, where they had been used for a Christmas Eve candlelighting ceremony.) 2) Seven individual, white candles, in holders of graduating height, dolls of each Founder (which most chapters will not have), and framed pictures of the Founders (those published in The P.E.O. Record some years ago), placed in alphabetical order, right to left, were arranged on a six-foot table, covered with a white tablecloth. (NOTE: For chapter use, the candles would be sufficient.) 3) Eight P.E.O.’s assisted with the candlelighting ceremony: One played the piano, and seven stood behind the display table and initiated the candlelighting ceremony. (NOTE For chapter use, the program presenter could light the candles of the Founders and begin the candlelighting ceremony.) The HUSTLE AND BUSTLE of the day is finally behind you and you have those few, precious, quiet moments to relax, to “sit a spell” and enjoy the fading warmth of a spring’s evening, or stroll through the crisp coolness of an autumn’s twilight. As you gaze into the evening’s stillness, your eyes are drawn Skyward and you see the first stars beginning to pierce the shadows of night. “Star light, star bright, first star I see to-night…” (BEGIN SLOWLY DIMMING THE HOUSE LIGHTS.) ONE LITTLE CANDLE It is better to light just One Little Candle than to Stumble in the dark, Better far that you light just One Little Candle, All you need’s a tiny spark. If we’d all say a pray’r that the world would be Free, The wonderful dawn of a new day we’ll see. And if ev’ryone lit just One Little Candle, What a bright world this would be. As the sun disappears beyond the distant horizon and the pinks and golds of the setting sun gradually give way to the deep blues of night, you see more stars – the North Star, Antares; soon, you are able to distinguish several of the constellations—the Big Dipper, the Southern Cross; now, the dark sky reveals its most spectacular sight, for it is filled almost to overflowing with hundreds, even thousands and millions, of stars like so many flickering fire-flies, glowing candles, or sparkling diamonds. (HOUSE LIGHTS ARE OUT. STAGE LIGHTS ARE ON.) In the eastern sky on a clear night in early autumn, you may notice a patch of shining haze and if you look closely, you will see that the patch is really made up of stars crowded so closely together that they appear to be almost touching. This grouping, this “cluster of stars” is enveloped in a nebula which drapes around the cluster like a great shimmering veil, gathering itself into wisps here and there and in some instances 1 resembling something like festoons from one star to another. These stars lie in the constellation Taurus, the bull, and are called the Pleiades (plee’a-deez), or the Seven Sisters. Greek mythology tells us that the seven sisters are the daughters of Atlas and his wife, Pleione and her daughters, Alcyone (al-sigh’oh-nee), Electra, Maia (may’ya), Merope (mer’-o’pee), Taygeta (tay-ij’-ee-ta), Celaeno (see’lee’’noh), and Asterope (as-ter’oh-pee) were strolling through a forest when they were confronted by the hunter, Orion, who was attracted by their great beauty. It is said that Orion pursued them for five years and just as he was about to overtake them, in answer to their prayers, Jupiter (or Zeus, depending on the storyteller) rescued the sisters by changing them into doves and transporting them to the safety of the skies. The magic charm and romantic mystery of the Pleiades has fascinated the imagination for hundreds of years; their misty radiance has enchanted many great poets, from Homer and the author of Job, to Tennyson, who was moved to write: “Many a night I saw the Pleiades rising through the mellow shade, Glittering like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.” The legend of the Pleiades also carries with it a concern for a lost sister, but accounts of which sister it is are unclear. Some stories credit Canopus with running away with Electra; Others suggest that the lost sister might have been Merope, as she married a mortal; but the mother, Pleione, is the one usually considered to be the lost Pleiad. This “cluster of stars” has much more in common with P.E.O. than might at first meet the eye. It might be said that P.E.O., too, ahs a “lost sister,” for had the organizing of the Sisterhood been held at a different time, we may have had eight founders instead of seven. Alice Bird recalls in Out of the Heart: “When the seven met together on the 21st of January and formed the P.E.O. Sisterhood, the call went up from all sides, ‘What about Carrie Woolson?’ For while we seven were dear friends for years, there was another who, if she had been there, would have been the eighth P.E.O. She had been with us during three years of college life, and in the fourth year her father sent her to Albion College to graduate under his friend, Dr. Jocelyn. But we soon passed it over, and said that as soon as Carrie came home in the spring we would make her a P.E.O. To me Carrie had always been one of the original P.E.O.’s. When she returned in March, six weeks later, she became one of us, but Franc and Mary will nod approvingly when I assert that she was one of the original P.E.O.’s.” Like the legend of the lost Pleiad, it is not clear in the early records of P.E.O., the order of the first initiates after the original seven; however, Carrie Woolson did become of the early members and is listed in the enrollment book as the 16th member. Another similarity between P.E.O. and the Pleiades is the misty veil of charm and wonder that surrounds both. And, like the Pleiades, who are often mistaken for the Little Dipper, P.E.O. is often confused with P.T.O. or P.T.A. Founding sister Ella Steward remembers:”…many were the conjectures as to the real meaning of P.E.O. Some jokingly guessed ‘Pigs Eat Onions,’ others of a more classical turn of mind said ‘Pleiades et Orion,’ thinking it had reference to the constellation, as we chose a star as our ensign…” And Franc Roads tells us: “We were called the ‘Pleiades’ and we enjoyed the poetic allusion.” In suggesting the star as the P.E.O. emblem, Alice Coffin could not have selected a more fitting symbol. Out of the Heart reports that the women had studied astronomy and were intrigued by the vastness of the universes, and for them, the star symbolized their quest for the highest and best things that life had to offer. It is appropriate then, to note that each star in the universe has a fixed place in the sky and can always be found in the same location. “For the stars,” writes Donald Menzel and Martha Martin in their book, The Friendly Stars, “are steadfast. Spring, summer, autumn and winter each has its own bright stellar setting, and we always can count on it appearing with unchanging beauty and unfailing promptness. The moon comes and goes. She is the symbol of inconstancy. The planets wander from place to place – most of them easy enough to find, but continually changing in brightness and position. Only the stars are always the same." Upon close inspection the Pleiades, you find that it is made up not of just seven stars, placed closely together so as to appear touching, but rather the constellation is composed of hundreds, thousands, each radiating its own individual brilliance for the sparkling benefit of the entire cluster. So it is with P.E.O.: Mary Allen gave the Sisterhood its poise; Alice Bird, its literary bent; Hattie Briggs, the home-making tendencies; Alice Coffin, the interest in education; Suela Pearson, gaiety and sociability; Franc Roads gave us our vision and progressiveness; and Ella Stewart, our desire for social service. Together, we may appear 2 to be so closely grouped that we are but a “patch of shining haze,” but individually, each sister shines with her own special talents and abilities, to be enjoyed and shared by the whole. As the earth rotates on its axis and traverses along its orbit around the sun, the Pleiades and the other constellations will change their location in the night sky, even disappearing totally from our view. But as the earth continues along its preordained route, we can again see our stars as they return to their familiar places in the heavens. This, too, is not unlike our Sisterhood, for as our organization moves through the years, along its charted course, and our sisters, “the stars,” travel through life, they are as close to us and as steadfast as the constellations. (BEGIN PLAYING “ONE LITTLE CANDLE”—SOFTLY) In honor of our own Pleiades, our “Seven Sisters,” we light these candles in loving remembrance of (CANDLES ARE LIT AS EACH NAME IS READ): Mary Allen, Alice Bird, Hattie Briggs, Alice Coffin, Suela Pearson, Franc Roads, and Ella Stewart. Like the warm glow of soft candlelight, the stars offer us the feeling of contentment, of wonder, and an understanding that God’s in His universe and all things are in their place. (THE SEVEN CANLELIGHTERS TAKE THEIR CANDLES AND MOVE TO THEIR PLACES IN THE ROOM.) As so poignantly written by D. M. Moir: “Stars are the daisies that began The blue fields of the sky.” Let us all now sing together, “One Little Candle,” as we pass to each other the light of the stars. (AS SINGING BEGINS – CHORUS ONLY—EACH CANLELIGHTER LIGHTS THE CANDLE OF THE PERSONS SITTING AT END OF EACH TABLE. SONG WILL BE SUNG TWICE. AFTER ALL TABLES ARE LIT, CANLELIGHTERS RETURN TO THEIR ORIGINAL PLACES. AT CONCLUSION OF SONG, CANDLES REMAIN LIT.) As we fondly remember our founding sisters this day, I suggest to you that we are like the Pleiades: Appearing as one, yet separate; constant, yet constantly moving; mysterious, yet understood. We are indeed, a “cluster of stars.” (EXTINGUISH CANDLES.) 3